View Three: Kutenai-English Dictionary

This prayer book features writing in the Kutenai language with English translations written underneath. This allows it to function as a Kutenai-English dictionary of sorts, mapping one language to the other. The Kutenai language is a language isolate, meaning it’s not related to any other languages that exist (though some people are trying to connect it to the Salish language family). There are possibly only 24 fluent speakers of the Kutenai language still alive, and all over the age of 65— however, since the 2010s, there has been an effort to preserve the language through writing. However, the nature of this text raises questions of what parts of the language are being retained throughout this process.